A friend of mine, a friend of ours…
-
putter_b — 12 years ago(December 01, 2013 11:23 AM)
He did it so that Santo would be comfortable with Donnie around. If Sonny said "This is a friend of mine", that would have forced Donnie to walk away so everyone could talk business. By Sonny doing that, he was more or less owning the responsibility for Donnie as well as pulling him closer to the life.
-
knifeparty2004 — 12 years ago(February 12, 2014 04:01 AM)
Hmm, I dont really buy this. I dont think they were going to talk business in front of Donnie anyway. Yes Sonny was vouching for Donnie but he still should have been introduced as a "friend of mine" as Lefty stated in the beginning.
-
Little_Korean — 12 years ago(March 30, 2014 11:57 AM)
Sonny was bending the rules, as gangsters are wont to do all the time.
As far as Sonny was concerned, Donnie was on the fast-track to becoming made anyway, so why disrupt things by telling Santos that Donnie wasn't yet legit.
When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears -
schumithecat — 12 years ago(April 01, 2014 11:08 AM)
my understanding is the ours/mine doesn't just refer to made guys it includes associates. it is basically vouching that the guy you're introducing is a gangster not necessarily a made guy. but i'm not an expert so fergidaboutit!
-
mikeyg24 — 11 years ago(May 30, 2014 10:04 PM)
I agree with you and I never spotted it before. I don't think there's any way in hell Sonny would 'bend the rules' and give the impression that Donnie was a made man, that was far from his right. That Donnie 'was on the fast track to being made' is nonsensical since Sonny was only a capo at that point and had no reason to believe Donnie was going anywhere.
There's a moral to this story Del Boy but for the life of me I can't find it! -
schumithecat — 11 years ago(December 08, 2014 02:16 PM)
I know what you wrote, I'm disagreed with your premise of what the phrases mean. I think "ours" can mean anyone involved in the mob so you can speak relatively freely, while "mine" is someone uninvolved in the mob (like a neighbor).
-
micirisi — 11 years ago(June 05, 2014 08:14 AM)
I really doubt it was a mistake in the script. Particularly since the writer(s) devoted an earlier scene defining the difference between
friend of mine
vs
friend of ours
. Remember Sonny has just told Donnie that he now was
his
guy and a rejected Lefty was sadly watching this introduction. Perhaps for the sake of the audience this seemingly intentional
faux paus
of Sonny's made the moment more painful for Lefty. Additionally I could envision a mob boss being annoyed by being introduced at a business meeting to
a friend of mine
. If it ever became an issue later I suspect Sonny could explain it away as slip of the tongue.
"He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator." -
SidekickinWhiteFury — 11 years ago(July 29, 2014 03:48 PM)
Sonny doesn't have the authority to make someone.
He said that, because he would not have introduced anyone lower than a made man to Trafficante.
It is against the rules to say someone is a made man when they are not. -
mastersslave74 — 11 years ago(January 21, 2015 03:21 AM)
I'm watching it now, and I noticed it right away. I even rewound it to check it out.
I would rather had had the Florida guy and Sonny Red mention that on the phone as a "he's introducing lackeys as made guys" type of thing. -
!!!deleted!!! (41638798) — 11 years ago(March 15, 2015 04:52 PM)
I know what you wrote, I'm disagreed with your premise of what the phrases mean. I think "ours" can mean anyone involved in the mob so you can speak relatively freely, while "mine" is someone uninvolved in the mob (like a neighbor).
Alas, no.
Go back and watch the scene in which Lefty explains very clearly to Donnie what being introduced as "a friend of mine" means versus "a friend of ours."
It's crystal clear. They are BOTH mob codes for different things. The latter "friend of ours" means this guy is a made man.
It's right in the film. -
avatar1140 — 9 years ago(June 03, 2016 09:50 PM)
It wasn't a mistake in the script. I made a post about this very thing as well, until I looked up what really happened on Wiki. If you trust Wiki, here is the excerpt:
"In 1981, for allowing undercover FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone (alias Donnie Brasco) to infiltrate the Bonanno crime family, caporegime Dominic Napolitano, also known as Sonny Black, had his hands severed after he was killed. This was because he had Pistone shake hands and introduced to others as a "friend of ours" or a made man when he was not."
So clearly the screenwriters did their research. And supposedly Pistone himself acted as an advisor on the show and injected a lot of realism into it.